Haswell with GT3 graphics comes in Q3 13

Despite some noise Intel tried to generate at CES, it doesn’t look like GT3-based processors are going to be first Haswells to hit the market.

We carefully worked to gather additional details on GT3 core introduction and everything we have learned so far indicates that GT3 graphics come in Q3 2012. The GT3 graphics core that will end up with Intel HD 5000 and HD 5200 branding will be a part of Intel’s quad-core H-series processors, as well as ultra-low power U-series. At the current schedule they are both planned for Q3 2013, a quarter that starts on July 1st and ends on September 30th 2013.

The 5000 series brand indicates that Intel believes GT3 can offer significant speed increase over 4000 and 4600 series graphics, brands reserved for GT2 based Haswell 4th generation Core chips.

When we asked Nvidia and AMD about GT3 as a potential threat, we got the same old answer that their discrete graphics can simply get better, fast enough to leave Intel in a could of dust. So far Intel has failed to seize any significant market share especially in gaming market from discrete mobile chip manufacturers, as gamers still want Radeon or Geforce GPUs in order to get acceptable frame rates and quality for gaming.

Intel is getting better with graphics, especially in the encoding part of the chip, but at the same time, it still fails to impress serious gamers to who are unlikely to go down the Intel path anytime soon.